Garthia: The Forgotten King

Chapter Three

You're almost there! The next chapter is my favorite one so far. It explains a lot, and it gives a lot of important information. Enjoy!

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~Chapter Three

11:15 P.M.

We didn't get home until very late. The reason is that Eve, while I was dealing with the trolls, called the police in a panic. She hung up on them so they figured someone forced her to hang up, like a kidnapper, and they came over immediately.

I tried to tell the students not to mention the trolls, but they didn't seen to know what I was talking about for some reason, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was that we still had to go through tons of questioning. It took a lot of lying, but they finally let us go around ten-thirty.

I don't really remember the ride home. I was too busy pondering over what the trolls said. Finally, when I couldn't come up with anything, I decided to ask my dad about it. There's no chance that he'll know what I'm talking about, but it's worth a shot. I'll try to be as vague as possible of course. I can't just say, "Hey, Dad. So at the school dance, a bunch of trolls attacked us, but don't worry. I scared them away. The thing is, they were shouting 'she's one of them' and something about my aura. Do you know what that means?"

But I have no choice. Eve's the only other person I could ask, and she would be the last person that I would expect to know.

We pull into our cracked driveway. When my dad stops to car Eve says goodbye, then walks over to her house. My dad and I sit in the car in silence. I can feel his worried gaze on me.

"Are you alright?" he finally says.

"Yeah." I lie.

"Good." he doesn't sound so sure, but he starts to get out of the car anyway.

I know I should ask him, but I don't know what I would say. Instead I let him walk into the house while I think of how I'm going to ask him.

I sit there until I come up with an idea. I decide on the cliche: a hypothetical situation.

I open the car door and sprint to the porch as fast as my legs will carry me; for all I know there will be some zombies lurking in the shadows with a thirst for brains.

When I get inside, my dad is sitting on the living room couch waiting for me, smiling. "What we're you doing in there? You've been out there for a while."

I smile back at him, already mentally preparing. "Oh, you know. Just talking to Eve. She's still pretty freaked out about the fight at the dance." That's the story we decided to go with. We told everyone that a huge fight broke out between the students. It's not really the most believable story, but it's the best I could come up with on such short notice.

"Right." There's a momentary silence. I pick at the bottom of my dress nervously.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you about something?" I say slowly, watching my words, "It's really important."

"Sure." I sit next to him on our ratty couch. I feel his calculating brown eyes on me as I sit.

"So I've been reading this fairy tail book." I continue without meeting his gaze, "And there were some crazy things in it."

"Like what?"

"You know. The normal stuff. Giants, ghosts. Trolls." I put extra emphasis on trolls, my eyes flickering towards him, but he doesn't seem to get the hint. "And it made me wonder. Could stuff like that be real?" I finally turn to him and search his expression for a sign that he understands my cryptic question. It's not much, but I notice a slight tightness in his jaw and a faraway look in his eyes. Like he's remembering something he'd rather not think about.

Noticing this fills me with hope. Maybe he does know.

He runs his fingers through his chocolate hair and frowns. "Let's be honest here, Hayden." he says with a sigh, "Did you see one of those creatures?"

"Yes." He doesn't seem surprised. "There were trolls at Prom."

"That makes a lot more sense than a huge fight."

"That was my idea. It was all I could come up with." I laugh humorlessly, trying to relieve some of the tension.

He flashes a smile but it's gone as quickly as it came. "Hayden, there's something I need to tell you."

I sit up straight, suddenly interested. "What is it?"

He takes a deep breath and takes my hand in both of his. "Now this might sound crazy, but everything you know is a lie."

"Actually, it's not that hard to believe."

"This is serious, Hayden." Dad releases my hand and gives me a look that says, I'm about to tell you one of the most important things you're ever going to hear. This is no time for sarcasm.

"I am being serious." He gives me that look that parents give you when you sass off to them. "Fine," I say, defeated. "I'm listening."

"Thank you." He sucks in another deep breath. "As I was saying, this world is a lot more different than you think. In fact, there's a whole other world that you don't even know about."

"I have a question," I raise my hand like I'm waiting for the teacher to call on me. "How do you know all of this stuff?"

He gets that tight jaw and faraway look again. "Because I was part of that world once."

I gasp involuntarily. This makes no sense. Other worlds? That's, ironically, the stuff of fairy tails. My dad said he wasn't from here, and now I know why he wouldn't tell me exactly where he came from. Now I know, and I'm not even sure that I want to.

"I know it's surprising," He clasps his hands on my shoulders. "But it's time you knew considering you already awakened your powers."

"Powers? Awakened?" I ask in disbelief. This is seriously weird. He must be kidding. There's no way that this is real.

"Yes. I don't know how, but something happened that allowed you to see the trolls." Then it hits me.

"The punch." I whisper.

"What?" I didn't know that I said that out loud.

"Oh. This guy named Aiden gave me some wonky punch at the Prom. I nearly choked on it."

My dad furrows his brow. "Aiden." he murmurs to himself thoughtfully. His face lights up for a second then he looks angry. "Oh." he grumbles, "Him."

"Wait, you know him?"

"Oh course I do. Everyone around here does."

"Everyone except me."

He ignores me. "He must have given you an Awakening."

"Do I even need to ask what that is?"

"It is pretty self explanatory. It's a potion that forcibly awakens someone's aura, thus releasing their abilities. But they're incredibly hard to come by."

One word sticks out to me. Aura. "I forgot to tell you. When I scared the trolls away, they kept talking about my aura and said I was one of 'them'. I'm guessing you know something about that?"

He smirks and stifles a laugh, like he just remembered a funny joke. "They should be scared. I would be too if I were them."

"But why would they be scared of my aura? And who is them?" Now I'm even more confused.

He leans closer and looks at me seriously. "Now Hayden. I'm about to tell you a story and you need to listen very closely. Knowing the things that I'm about to tell you will be very helpful later."

He launches into a story.